Pages

March 25, 2014

Will You Walk This Way For A While?

.

It's soon to be Kitten Season. The time of year for kittens to be born, most unplanned. They come from neighborhood cats, your crazy aunt who did not get her cat spayed, from over the river and through the woods. And then out of the woodwork. Many of them in the Roanoke Valley will end up at our local pound, the Regional Center for Animal Care and Protection (RCACP).

A sad fact is that many of the babies will be too young for adoption, and some will be orphans needing bottle feeding. In the past, these kittens would have been automatically euthanized; however, seeing the need, 2 years ago Angels of Assisi started a special foster program for very young kittens called the Itty Bitty Kitty Committee.

It works like this: you sign up, we give you information on how to do it, supplies, support, and medical care. The kittens will come, day or night, and foster parents won't get a lot of notice on when they are needed, but they will be. Some kittens, like the Assisi ones in the photo above, will have a mama who will do most of the work. Other kittens will need to be bottle fed until they can eat on their own, usually around 3 - 4 weeks old. At 8 weeks old they can come back to our adoption center and be readied for their new homes.

Once kittens start eating on their own, they are surprisingly self sufficient and a ton of fun to watch growing up. TV can't even hold it's own to some of the crazy antics that are there for the taking.

Managing a kitten foster program is like, well... herding cats. Therefore flexibility on everyone's part is necessary. We have learned a lot in the last 2 years, and worked hard to make the program as easy as possible for the foster families. We've also got a goal- I'll let you in on a little secret- and that is to help Roanoke become a no kill community for the first time ever. We are so close, and saving this very fragile and vulnerable population from the RCACP is vital. We need your help to get it done, and can guarantee that the family rewards will be endless.

Check out the information here, and drop foster coordinator Chelsea Ellis an email to sign up. Let's share the tremendous amount of compassion we see in our community every day with those who need it most this spring and summer. We know you can do it, and we thank you eternally for your continued support.

About Us

Your Gift Brings Hope

Your contribution to Angels of Assisi funds low cost spay/neuter programs, provides food, shelter, and medical care to pets in need, and helps with animal rescue in our community. Together we can make a difference!